"What is the report on the missing Bloods?" Arkive asked Jack.
"Sir, I regret to inform you that the missing Bloods were found horribly mutilated," Jack replied, his face grave. "And furthermore, there isn't anything that can link the Death Dragons into this, or the other resistance group."
"Are you sure these reports are valid?" Arkive asked.
"Yes sir," Jack answered.
"I wonder if this could be a new enemy," Arkive said. Eternal WAR Chapter 2: A Friend…
Anna walks towards Michael's house. As she walks up to the door, she hears strange noises coming from the backyard. She goes around and sees Michael punching the air repeatedly.
"You do know that no matter how much you do that you’re not gonna get your powers back, right?" she said.
"You say that every time," Michael said, still punching the air.
"And I mean it every time. That's just not how it works," Anna said.
"Watch me make it…" Michael replied.
Anna sighed.
"You really never give up," she said.
"Nope," Michael answered.
"Whatever. Just don't kill yourself, ‘kay?" Anna said.
Suddenly, Jamie came running to the yard yelling, "Olivia!!"
Michael gives Anna a look and leaves.
"H-Hey… Where you going?" Anna asked.
"Somewhere else," Michael answered.
"I'll come..."
"No," Michael said flatly.
Michael walked away. Anna watched him walk away and shook her head.
"Guess he still hasn't accepted it yet..." Anna thought to herself.
"What’s wrong with him?" Jamie asked.
"It's nothing," Anna said.
Anna stood there thinking for a bit. She finally decided to follow him.
"Jamie, wait here please…" Anna said to Jamie as she ran towards Michael.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"Don't worry about it! Just don't follow!" Anna yelled back.
"Okay..." Jamie said to herself.
Michael walked to a hill and sat down, looking out at the beach below. He took off the locket and clenched his fist around it, as a single tear ran down his face.
Anna walked up behind Michael. She thought to herself, "That's what I thought..."
The waves can still be heard very clear, even though they're on a hill. A calm breeze blows off the lake.
Anna walks up closer to Michael and looks down at him, finally deciding to say something.
"Hey…" she said.
Michael jumps up quickly, wiping the one tear, hoping that she didn't notice it.
"What the hell? I told you not to come!" he said.
"Well, I did anyway." Anna said as she sat down next to him.
Neither of them says anything until finally, Anna breaks the silence.
"That was hers...wasn't it?"
Michael doesn't reply, just stares off into the lake, lost in his memories.
"Just remember, you’re not the only one who's watched Varcus kill the people you cared about," Anna says as she's getting up, and walks away.
Michael turns around, holding himself up with his left hand. "Wait....what?" he said.
Michael stares the way Anna went.
"Man, that girl is as weird as..." he began, before a brutal memory of the girl he once knew flashed before him yet again. It takes a few minutes for Michael to finally push those painful memories away.
Michael tries to get his mind away from what Anna said, but couldn't. He finally gave up and walked back over to her. He grabbed her on the shoulder and asked, "What did you mean back there? 'You’re not the only one who saw Varcus kill people you cared about?'"
"I watched Varcus slaughter my whole family! The only reason I'm still here is that my oldest brother tried to fight him while my other brother took me away!" Anna shouted at Michael. There seemed to be tears in her eyes, but they did not fall out.
Michael was dumbstruck. He couldn't think of anything to say except, "I...I… I had no idea."
"That's right! You didn't! Everything is always about you! Your problems, your past, your situation!" Anna yelled, emphasizing each "you” with a jab to Michael's chest with her finger.
Anna turns around and starts to walk away. Then she hears Michael talk from behind her, "What if I fight then?" Anna jumps and looks back at him. "What if I fight for the both of us?"
Surprised as she was to hear the boy who wanted nothing to do with this war say what he said, she gave a slight laugh. "You want to fight...after all that you said about not caring about this war?"
Michael looked down before saying, "It's different now...David's safe now... And now that he's safe...I want revenge."
Anna looked at Michael. "Revenge, huh? I tell you what, you're nowhere near strong enough to take on the demon you’re after."
Michael looked up at Anna and started yelling, "Oh yeah? What about you? I didn't see you fighting against Shinrok! Hell, I've never even seen you fight!"
Anna yells back, "Like that matters! What matters is that you’re powerless, and the fact that I was actually taught how to fight makes me stronger than you!" Anna folded her arms and looked away.
Michael yelled, holding up a fist, "I'm not afraid to hit a girl!"
"Oh, really? Are you looking for a fight then?" Anna asked.
They stare at each other until Michael finally stops it, saying, "What are we doing?"
"I'm not sure," Anna replied. Michael continues, by saying, "We're on the same team...to think we were willing to fight each other."
"Yeah, that was pretty dumb, wasn't it?" Anna said, realizing it.
"You’re the blonde," Michael mumbled.
"You’re blonde, too, you dumbass!!" Anna yelled.
Both Anna and Michael become quiet as they hear a faint, "Help!"
"Sounds like it's coming from the school..." Michael takes off running in the position he heard the cry from.
"Dumbass! What are you doing?!" Anna yelled, trying to catch up to him.
"How the hell can he run this fast?" Anna thinks to herself, while losing site of Michael. Soon after, she stops, unable to run anymore, and rests.
"Stop…leave me alone… Please..." Michael runs through the school’s hallway hearing, the pleas for help echo around him.
Michael turns the corner to a hallway full of lockers to see a scrawny kid with spiky white hair laying face first on the ground with one of Travis's "buddies’" foot holding it down.
"Hey!" Michael yelled across the hall "Remember me?"
"Well, well, if it isn't the pathetic ‘hero’,” Travis said with a smirk "Do you honestly enjoy getting your ass kicked that much?"
The kid slowly lifted his head as much as he could to see what was going on. When he looked up, he saw Michael standing there with a serious look on his face, with his hand on his hip.
Michael begins to walk closer to Travis.
"I take it that you wanna do this again, huh? Fine!" Travis said.
Travis walks closer to Michael, too. They keep walking until they’re close enough to touch each other. "Okay Michael, just let me know when you..." Travis suddenly gasped for air. When he looked down, he realized that Michael had punched him in the gut, dropping him to his knees instantly. Almost a second after he fell to his knees, Michael kicked him across his face, sending him to the floor. Then Michael stomped his foot on his head, ensuring he stayed down there.
Michael leaned downward and told Travis, "Feel this? Things are going to change around here!" Michael puts more pressure on his leg, which is putting more pressure on Travis's head. "Starting with you and your little buddies." Michael took his foot off of Travis's head and kicked him in his chest extremely hard, causing him to cough and wheeze.
Michael looks at Travis's buddies, looking specifically at the one holding the kid’s head down with his foot.
Anna finally manages to come around the bend and instantly figures out what happened.
"I'm only gonna ask once. Get your foot off of the kid’s head before I rip it off!" Michael said menacingly. The kid just stood there. Then his other two buddies stepped in.
"To take him, you'll need to take both of us, too."
Michael just says, "Okay," and starts to walk over to them, seeming almost fearless.
Anna stands there in complete awe at what she's seeing. "What happened? ...This strength isn't human... Is he really able to resist the barrier on his own?"
Michael continues to walk towards the person holding his foot on the innocent kid’s head, who seems to be getting a little freaked out. "I'll give you 5 seconds to change your mind." Michael walks a little faster. "One… Two…" Michael is now in reach of the kid, "Three…Four…" Michael now stands directly in front of the punk... "Could have saved yourself some humiliation…and a hospital bill. Oh well, your problem, not mine." Within that moment, he grabs the kid’s leg, and almost snaps it to the side, hard. "Five," he said.
The kid fell down and actually started crying, while the other two fled.
"So much for loyalty…" Michael looked around, saw Travis still wheezing, the kid holding his leg on the ground, and then saw Anna. "Hey." Anna kind of smiles when Michael said that.
Michael looks down at the white-haired boy, who looked like he was around the same age as himself, maybe a little younger. Michael reaches his hand down towards the boy. "You alright?" he asked.
"Yeah," the boy said, re-spiking his hair.
"What’s your name?" Michael asked.
"William," the boy replied, "but you can call me Will."
"Okay, Will. My name's Michael," Michael replied.
(As they shake hands, the color gets really high, focusing on the handshake, and fades into the closer.)
